Always The Dragon
by Kalicat
Summary: After the Golden Trio return to Hogwarts, Hermione finds herself faced with a dangerous situation. Struggling to handle it alone, will she let anyone get close enough to help her? Rated M for later scenes of an awesomely citrus-y nature.


A/N: Hello again everybody! I know its been forever since I posted anything, I'm sorry! I moved into college and found that I had a lot more free time than I thought I did in high school. Anyways, I'm back and I should be able to post regularly, I have this whole story planned out, barring sudden character mutiny. Anyhow, enjoy!

The corridor was only a blurry smear in the corner of her eye as Hermione flung herself down the hallway, tears streaming down her face as she tried to ignore the searing pain in her shoulder and arm. She thought she'd gotten used to the sting of bruises, but her face felt like she'd fallen face first onto concrete. Ron had been so angry this time; she hadn't even thought he might get upset that she didn't wear his necklace. Her fault, she should have known better.

Grateful for the deserted corridors, she ducked into the staircase leading to the Astronomy tower. Returning seventh year and heroine of the War she might be, but McGonagall would still tear into her if she was caught out of bed after hours. Her reputation as perfect Hermione would be shot. Running up the stairs, she tried to collect her thoughts, she had to find a way to fix this. Reaching the top, she half collapsed onto the stone floor under the mockingly cheerful stars.

Pulling her wand out with her left hand, she struggled to keep her sobs under control as she whispered "Percuros" and sighed with relief as her arm began to heal, her skin knitting together as the jagged bone sank back in and fused with the other end. She didn't know the spell for a dislocated shoulder, but she could look it up in a moment. Whispering a well-worn spell to heal her bruised face and torso, she forced herself to slow her breathing. With her broken arm and bruises healed, Ron at least couldn't get mad with her for looking like a weakling. She'd already made that mistake once, forgetting to hear a particularly nasty bruise on the back of her neck. Trying to explain it away to Harry had been hard enough, but when Ron had blown up on her that night, he'd made that bruise look like a little love tap from a kitten's paw.

Pushing her hair out of her face and leaning back, she wiped the tears from her face, hating how no matter how many she wiped away, more flowed down to take their place. Cradling her right arm, she remembered how it hadn't always been this way. Actually, when they'd first returned to school, it seemed like for the first time in years she could relax and enjoy her life. Harry and Ron had returned for their last classes to become Aurors, Ginny was in their year and training hard at Quidditch, Neville was Professor Sprout's star pupil, on the fast track to becoming the new Herbology teacher when she retired at the end of this year, and even Luna had shown interest in journalism. She and Ron had struggled at first to adjust to their new 'couple' status, but they'd been so happy…

Tilting her head back to blink dazedly at the stars, she shuddered slightly at the memory of the first night she'd found out about Ron's temper. Her professors had piled on homework that she was having trouble finishing and Ron and Harry had begged her to help then with their homework. Normally it wouldn't have been a problem, but with four half finished essays due the next morning, she'd had to refuse. At first, she'd just though Ron was just a little annoyed; he'd sulked for a few hours. It hadn't been until Harry left that he started hurling questions at her with venom in his voice she'd never heard before. Sighing, she knew it had been her fault. She'd snapped back at him, not knowing better. A quick backhand across the mouth knocked her out of her chair and into her place. She'd learned quickly that any trace of annoyance in her voice would set him off quicker than anything else. She knew he loved her, and really, he was just teaching her how to be a better person…

Choking back a fresh wave of tears, Hermione pushed the memories out of her mind. Looking back never helped, she had to concentrate on what she had to do. First things first, she had to heal her dislocated shoulder. She'd walked around with various injuries before, but there was no way she could hide this, the pain was making her nauseous even when sitting still. Pulling out her book of healing spells from her bag, she'd only flipped it open before she heard a shuffling behind her.

Ducking her head and whipping around, she was shocked to see Draco Malfoy leaning against the wall, a notebook propped against his knee, pencil frozen over the page and an alarmed look spreading across his face. His expression alone didn't surprise her, it had been his default expression during much of the last few years, but the way his eyes trailed over her injured arm and torn sleeve, fixing on the unnatural lump of her shoulder scared her. He was seeing too much, her inner voice screamed at her, he'd been there the whole time! He'd seen everything!

"Granger…?" Draco began, his normally harsh voice softened by bewilderment, "Are you okay? Did something-"

Hermione wrenched herself to her feet, ignoring the thump of her book hitting the stone floor as she turned and fled from his inquisitive gaze. He was the last person she needed to know about this. The absolute last. She didn't need him blackmailing her on top of everything else.

Draco sat stunned as he watched Hermione run off like a bat out of hell. Putting down his sketchbook, he closed his eyes tight, replaying the scene in his mind. Hermione practically falling to the ground, her arm gushing blood, the jagged bone visible cutting through her porcelain skin, her normally beautiful face so puffy and bruised as if someone had worked her over pretty good. As he'd sat there frozen with shock, she'd healed herself with an air of desperate practicality. The almost nonchalant way she'd spelled away the bruises shocked him more than anything. This hadn't been the first time this had happened to her. It'd looked like her shoulder was dislocated as well. Pushing himself to his feet, he walked over and picked up the small dog eared book she'd left behind. Flipping through it, his heart dropped into his stomach as he saw how worn the section on broken bones and bruises was. Looking in the direction she'd gone, Draco found himself worrying about the little lioness he'd always admired. The odd thing was that he'd always known she was strong willed and stubborn, sharp as a tack. To see her calmly healing herself after someone had obviously beaten her, as if it was nothing, shook him to the core. He was well aware that he didn't have a chance with her, even as a friend, but he'd known she could take care of herself. She'd never allow herself to be treated badly. But now…

Draco stood there thinking frantically. Something had to be done, Hermione was obviously in danger.

A/N: There we go, chapter one is up! For those of you who have read Lioness Falling, I will be posting an epilogue to that hopefully tonight and I'll have chapter two of this posted ASAP! Please review, I love hearing your thoughts and ideas!


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